Whitecaps overlooked by home record-conscious Dynamo

Gary Kingston, Vancouver Sun03.19.2013

Rookie Erik Hurtado (left) tries to close down ball-carrying Giles Barnes of the Houston Dynamo while Ethan Sampson (right) also defends during their Major League Soccer pre-season game on Feb. 20, 2013 in Charleston, N.C. 'With (Hurtado’s) pace and his power and his work rate, his fitness, that’s all good qualities to have on the road. And again, he’s a goal threat as well,' Whitecaps head coach Martin Rennie says of his freshman forward.

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VANCOUVER — Maybe it’s the Houston Dynamo website staff being overly cocky and dismissively ignoring the Vancouver Whitecaps. Or perhaps we’re just attaching more sinister meaning to a sentence than was really intended.

After the Dynamo extended their all competition home unbeaten streak to 32 earlier this month, the MLS team’s website suggested this: “As it stands, the Dynamo will have a chance to tie Real Salt Lake’s all competitions record (of 34) on Saturday March 30 when they host the San Jose Earthquakes at BBVA Compass Stadium.”

Uh, not if they don’t win Game 33 first. There was no mention of that one, which is on the schedule for this Saturday, with the 2-0 and seemingly improved Caps being the visitors.

Of course, it would be hard to fault Dynamo staff for taking the Caps lightly. Vancouver did go winless on the road in its inaugural MLS season in 2011 and just 3-10-4 last season — 0-7-1 to close — when it showed more sleight of hand than Penn and Teller in pulling out three 1-0 victories in which it was either badly out-possessed or badly outshot.

Although you’d be hard-pressed to slide that pessimistic eye-test analysis past head coach Martin Rennie and his rose-coloured glasses.

“What we did on the road last year was better than a lot of teams and it was reasonably favourable and probably not far off average,” Rennie insisted on Tuesday. “Maybe a little below average, but not far off.”

Hmmm. Turns out that a perusal of the 2012 standings indicates he’s got at least a bit of a point there. Only 10 of the league’s 19 clubs had more road wins than the Caps’ three, with the average number of victories away from home being 4.15.

Vancouver’s 10 away goals, however, was tied for the worst in the league with Portland, which means the Caps hardly threatened anybody on attack.

Although Rennie looks, after two home games to start 2013, to have a better ball-possession club with talented newcomers Nigel Reo-Coker and Daigo Kobayashi joining the ever-improving Gershon Koffie in midfield, the coach isn’ t about to ask his players to open things up as they prepare to play three straight away from BC Place Stadium.

It’s still going to be kitty-bar-the-door soccer for much of the 90 minutes.

“The games that we won (last year), we played a certain way and we won,” said Rennie, who answered with a quick ‘no’ when asked if this season’s team would be allowed to open up a bit more. “I’ve studied MLS in quite a bit of detail now. And I even look at, for example Montreal won two road games (this season), and it’s very clear how they played.

“Teams that are picking up points on the road have a very clear game plan on how they go about doing it. I’ve noticed in the games (last season) that we’ve maybe played better and attacked more, we’ve lost. That’s probably not what I want to do.”

So does that mean entertaining and aesthetically pleasing, flowing soccer is a non-starter away from home? Not necessarily, says Rennie.

“I think people are learning more and more about soccer now and they recognize that there’s different ways of playing different games and there’s excitement in that.”

And, in fact, with considerably more options on the bench this season, including rookies Erik Hurtado and Kekuta Manneh who offer great pace, Rennie can bring on “a different dimension” late. In tight, scoreless or 1-1 games, as the home team pushes forward, the two speedsters have the ability to use their pace to find openings on the counter attack.

“With (Hurtado’s) pace and his power and his work rate, his fitness, that’s all good qualities to have on the road. And again, he’s a goal threat as well.”

Defensive midfielder Jun Marques Davidson says he believes the experience and savvy that players like Reo-Coker, Kobayashi and Kenny Miller bring will mean the club can be much more intelligent in when to use possession and go on the counter attack.

“At times, we do need to keep the possession and have our tempo in the game,” he said. “We can’t always attack and we can’t always defend all the time. We just have to find the right time when to keep the ball and when to go forward.”

GOAL KICKS: Miller, who wore the captain’s arm band in the opening two games of the season after Jay DeMerit was sidelined with an Achilles tendon tear, will miss Saturday’s game after being called up for Scotland’s World Cup qualifiers. Miller set a huge example in the 2-0 start with his intensity and work ethic and Rennie is hoping someone steps up to provide that. “On the road, you have to have that kind of work rate.” … Winger Omar Salgado, the former No. 1 overall draft pick, sat out practice again Tuesday with discomfort in his injured foot and won’t travel with the team to Houston.

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Whitecaps overlooked by home record-conscious Dynamo

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